There is a growing hunger for practical solutions and a greater awareness of the importance of ecoliteracy in wider society. FHWS offer courses and seminars to help provide inspiration, direction and change in the wider world.
Dates of next workshops: | Course Titles | Venue | Fee |
Thursday 10th October 2024 | Eco-friendly waste-water treatment | Lahinch, Co Clare | €175* |
Friday 11th October 2024 | Water on the land | Lahinch, Co Clare | €175* |
Saturday 12th October 2024 | Ecovisioning | Lahinch, Co Clare | €80 |
All courses include a light lunch. Course times between 10am and 4.30pm. Registration at 9.30am.
To book a workshop, please email elinor.hitching@gmail.com.
Workshop Descriptions
Eco-friendly wastewater treatment; design and implementation Reed beds, constructed wetlands, willow filters, zero discharge willow systems and source separation technologies. These seminars are designed for architects, engineers, site assessors, planners and system installers who wish to gain a greater understanding of natural and low carbon sewage treatment systems. We will explore the fundamentals of system design, construction and planting; enabling participants to use these as part of EPA Code of Practice (2021) approved designs, as well as covering innovative design options for challenging sites (which are not necessarily Code approved approaches, but can be effective at addressing existing pollution issues). |
Water on the Land: Solutions to Flooding, Climate and Biodiversity Farm-scale and urban solutions for water management, repair and rewilding. This workshop looks briefly at the role of conventional land and water management in creating many of the problems that we see around flooding, climate breakdown and the biodiversity crisis; then focuses on the solutions for turning these problems around. The beauty of land and water management solutions is that they are local by definition, and often within our direct power to create change. This course is solutions oriented and practical; building a toolkit of practical measures that can be adapted for any farm, urban area, or full stream or river catchment. The workshops are designed to be of assistance to the farming community, community groups, tidy towns groups, farm advisors, local authorities, urban planners and others with an interest in keeping water clean, nature based flood prevention, climate resilience and biodiversity habitat repair, rewilding and enhancement. |
EcoVisioning: Seeing the Future and Loving it Exploring ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible’. How we feel about the world around us directly affects the world we see. Often the challenges can feel overwhelming, so our positive work can become bogged down by fear and inertia. Beliefs shape our day to day realities, and our collective beliefs around the natural world have a direct bearing on how we prioritise our politics, society and lives. Eco-visioning offers a creative exercise for exploring complex issues and for bringing answers and insight to challenging problems. Co-facilitated by Feidhlim Harty and Elinor Hitching (heart-and-soul-healing.com), this in-person workshop explores what author and philosopher Charles Eisenstein calls ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible’. EcoVisioning is a dreaming space designed to facilitate participants in envisioning the best imaginable future and inviting that future into being. |
We also offer individualised half- and full-day workshops to groups on the following topics:
- Permaculture approaches to design of low impact, effective sewage and grey water treatment; landscape based flood control and water filtration; edible landscaping and community orchard creation.
- Rewilding and the many ways in which we can enhance habitats in Ireland, large and small. We explore the key elements of landscape scale rewilding, giving land back to wildlife and bringing the wildlife back into the land: core, carnivores and corridors; looking at every scale from the work of Rewilding Europe to supporting pollinators in a window-box.
- Climate solutions, carbon sequestration, local climate and ecological resilience tools and an exploration of landscape management on climate systems, allowing for local scale solutions to local scale issues while also improving the wider world and ecosystems.
- Rewilding your local waterway – taking a site-specific approach to local streams and rivers. If you are part of a local community group who would like to take a deep look at your own local waterway(s) we can provide some site-specific training and guidance on how to proceed.